Pedro de la Rosa, here in Jaguar colours in 2001, is seen as Vitaly Petrov's closest rival for a drive with Sauber. Photograph: Mark Thompson/Allsport

Vitaly Petrov, the runner-up to the new Williams recruit Nico Hülkenberg in this year's GP2 series, could become the first Russian driver in Formula One if he successfully concludes a deal with Sauber.

Speculation in Switzerland, where Sauber are based, places Petrov and the former McLaren-Mercedes test driver Pedro de la Rosa as favourites to drive the Ferrari-engined cars in next year's F1 world championship.

Others under consideration are understood to be Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli, Heikki Kovalainen, Christian Klein and Kamui Kobayashi, although Peter Sauber has recently expressed his frustration at not being able to hold talks with drivers until the FIA confirms his team have a place on the grid next year.

However, most F1 insiders confidently anticipate that Sauber will be given the go-ahead to take over the 13th place vacated by Toyota following their withdrawal after the final race of the 2009 season in Abu Dhabi.

That approval is expected to be given at the next meeting of the FIA's F1 commission on 9 December.

"If we signed Petrov, the Russian market would open up to us in 2011," Sauber reportedly told the German-language Swiss TV channel Schweizer Fernsehen. "That is worth reflecting on. There are also experienced drivers like Heidfeld, Trulli and de la Rosa [who] lives in Zurich and would be close by."

Sauber sold 80% of his Hinwil-based team to BMW and bought it back at a bargain price last month, although he does not intend to spend many more years on the pit wall and would like to find a buyer for the team.